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He didn’t realize it until the one time he hugged her and didn’t let go for a very, very long time. She had another low moment, and as her best friend, her boyfriend, Marco held on for as long as Star needed. But as he held her as tight as he could, letting her meld against him, taking all of her frustration out, he caught two different beats of tha-thump.
Tha-thump.
Tha-thump.
Two heartbeats. Steady, but alternating beats, bouncing one off the other. For a moment, Marco wanted to poke fun at it— is that why Star always had so much love and kindness to give?
Twice the heart, twice the good nature.
It wasn’t until they pulled apart, the embrace turned into simple hand-holding as they both sat with their backs against the wall, Star’s head on Marco’s shoulder. Even still, Marco heard the soft, comforting and unfamiliar beat echo in his mind. It was a bittersweet comfort amidst the moment between them.
“Star?”
“Yeah?”
He didn’t say anything else. He didn’t need to; Marco just lunged right back and hugged her. Star finally let out a soft laugh, returning the embrace. The last thing he remembered was that foreign, yet comforting tha-thump lulling him to peacefulness, and the two of them eventually slumping to the floor, intertwined and drifting off into sleep.
.
.
.
They had been arguing. About what, he couldn’t even remember, but now, Marco found himself laughing so hard, he felt like he was about to cry.
“What did you just say?!” Marco exclaimed.
“Stop laughing!” Star yelled back— yet this time, the mood was much more lighthearted. “Marco! Marco Diaz, you stop that right now!” She did it again, and he laughed even harder. Her voice went shrill, the words morphed into what sounded like shrieking chitters. “I’m sorry! S-stop laughing!”
A blush completely lit up Star’s face, pink all over, stammering slipping from her lips, and a light growl as she playfully shoved him.
“Why are you laughing at me?!” she said. “We’re supposed to be mad at each other!”
“What was that?” Marco retorted, his tone of voice breathless from all of the laughing that kept coming up. “T-that chittering you just did?”
Star rolled her eyes. “It’s Mewnian, you dork,” she said. “I said some really mean things! I called you a corn thief and your mother a worm! Those are super offensive, and I totally didn’t mean it! A-and besides, I haven’t spoke Mewnian in forever, that was embarrassing…” She trailed off into a groan, running her hands over her face in distress.
Marco’s laughter finally dwindled and he shook his head, stepping forward to place a hand on her shoulder, looking at her softly.
He completely forgot about their argument.
“Lo siento, te quiero,” he said, smiling wide when Star’s eyes went wide with confusion at his words. He was rusty, but pretty certain he had gotten it right. Another laugh, much softer, escaped Marco once more. “That’s one of the many languages people speak on Earth.”
“There’s more than one?” Star asked, with pure bewilderment. “How many?”
Marco shrugged. “A lot?”
“What did you say?” Star challenged. “What the heck were you speaking? Are we still arguing?”
Marco hummed, leaning in to hug to his girlfriend. “Nah,” he assured. “We’re not arguing anymore. And, as for what I was saying—” He kissed her cheek discreetly, and grinned at her soft giggle. “I’ll make you a deal. Teach me Mewnian and I’ll teach you Spanish.”
.
.
.
Usually, Marco considered himself to be fairly calm, cool and collected around people who were injured. He had graduated top of the first-aid class last summer, after all. But his nerves were high— and Star was hurt, all because she had decided to try and do tricks on his bike, when she had barely gotten the hang of making u-turns—
“What’s wrong?” Star asked. “Is it bad?”
“Uh,” Marco kept staring at the scrape on her shin, through her rainbow leggings, perplexed at what he was looking at. “Did you fall in a puddle or…?”
Star stared at her leg, then shrugged. “No,” she said. “I fell in the cactuses—”
“Cacti,” Marco impulsively corrected.
“Yeah, those things, and some rocks,” she said plainly. “Here, gimme the first-aid kit, I got this,” She took the box from him and had some reasonable struggle with the impossibly tiny latches, but refusing her boyfriend’s help.
A long, drawn-out “uh” came from Marco, and he watched as Star haphazardly slap on a few cartoon-character printed band-aids.
“Whoa, wait, hold on, that’s not how you do it!” Marco argued.
“It stopped the blood from coming out, I feel fine, come on,” Star urged, grabbing him by the arm and dragging him up with her so they were standing on the edge of the curb side-by-side, basked in late afternoon sunset. “I wanna do that cool kickflip thing I saw you do off the sidewalk once!”
Marco rolled his eyes. “You just put on some band-aids, that’s not gonna do anything!” He stammered, then paused. “What the heck is that sparkly purple stuff all over your leg, anyway?!”
Now it was Star’s turn to be confused. “Uh, blood, duh,” she said. “You’re acting weirder than usual, Safe Kid.”
Oh.
“I’m not much of a safe kid anymore, thanks to you,” Marco said, wrapping an arm around Star’s shoulders. “C’mon, if we go inside and you let me actually fix your leg, I can teach you how to pop a wheelie.”
.
.
.
“You didn’t tell me about this the first time we danced together,” was the first thing Marco mumbled.
Star’s eyes crinkled a bit when she smiled at him. “Because last time, you were just so charming, and there was that shiny red spotlight on us—” She noticed his eyeroll and giggled, leaning in to discreetly kiss his cheek. “Now we’re at some fancy Mewni ball, you dork. I have an image to keep up.”
It was the king and queen’s twentieth anniversary ball, the Butterfly castle decked out to look like something straight out of a fairytale. Marco always felt so out of place at these royal events Star took him to—
—it would have helped if his dignity wasn’t being bruised by the fact his girlfriend was leading the waltz.
“Are you sure this is how they do it on Mewni or are you just doing this to make fun of me?” Marco whispered, a smirk evident in his voice.
“This is how they do it on Mewni,” Star declared. “I’m just out of practice.”
It seemed that she wasn’t wrong. Marco glanced over and had to stifle a laugh that was the amusing sight of Queen Moon trying to lead King River in… whatever sort of dance they were doing. Star seemed to go along with the program for once, swaying herself and Marco back and forth gently to the symphony of the grand royal orchestra.
“You haven’t stepped on my toes yet,” Marco spoke up. “That’s a good start,”
“Oh, yeah?” Star challenged, a playful twinkle in her eyes as she leaned in, pretending to stomp on her boyfriend’s foot.
Marco huffed out a laugh, backing away a bit and seemingly taking Star with him— letting her yelp and collapse against his chest. Both of them blushed, fully aware of everyone staring…
...and Marco saw an opportunity and took it.
He helped Star stand up normally, then took a step forward, his arm around her waist and their fingers interlocked. Puzzled, Star looked at Marco, who could only give a smirk in reply.
“Just trust me,” he said softly as they began to glide across the dancefloor.
“With my life, my prince,” Star playfully retorted, her entire face aglow with a blush.
.
.
.
“So it’s like Christmas in July?” Marco asked, wincing at how bright and sparkly everything was. It was as if Star had gotten the biggest bucket of glitter magic could make and she had dumped it all over Mewni.
It almost felt like Christmas too… if it wasn’t blazing hot, of course.
Mewnian summers were brutal.
“I have no idea what that is, but sure!” Star beamed. “Oh, wait, isn’t Christmas a Earth holiday?”
“Yeah,” Marco said. “But it takes place in winter. And it’s a little different than— what did you say this was again?”
Star had to speak over the Johansens’ playing lively jig-like music further down the gloomy Mewnian beach; overcast, muggy and sweltering weather. Apparently this was a ‘perfect’ summer day to Mewmans. “It’s Jofiel! The oldest Mewnian holiday — well, right before Mewnipendance Day,” she explained. “It’s a different day every year, but it’s always on the coldest day of summer and Mewman families and friends join together and we feast and give presents to each other!”
Marco furrowed his brow, and then gave a small smile. “Sounds like Christmas to me,” he said.
“Yeah, I guess,” Star paused, then shrugged. “The Butterflys are actually into it. Gives them a chance to show off their wealth, I think.”
“Star, darling,” her great-aunt Etheria huffed as she approached the two teens. “Were you the one who brought this Earthling to our Jofiel celebration?”
Star nodded. “Yup! You remember Marco, right? I was just explaining to him about—”
Etheria squinted at Marco, blatantly ignoring her grand-niece. She harrumphed, and twirled the gloomy grey umbrella she used to shield herself from the sun. “If you’re going to bring your future king to celebrations, you ought to educate him more about Mewni,” she muttered, before shuffling off.
“What?!” Star blurted out. “Great-aunt Etheria! I — I never—!” She glanced back at Marco, who was blushing and biting his lip to prevent from laughing. “I… I’m sorry about that. Comes with dating a princess, I guess.”
“It’s okay,” Marco laughed, wrapping an arm around his girlfriend’s shoulders.
“Are you sure?” Star said, with a slight pout.
He nodded, and didn’t hesitate in the slightest. He had seen magic and more, been introduced to whole new worlds, dimensions beyond his imagination— and some sort of love that took his heart by storm. If dating a princess meant coming with that, along with everything else wonderful and weird in between, who was he to complain?
.
.
.
Humans were strange and beautiful creatures. That was the simplest way Star could sum up her time on Earth. They was no black and white of good and bad with them, they acted differently, had cute little quirks and were so similar yet so foreign at the same time.
She had grown to love them, both as a species and specifically.
Love in many aspects as well. Her dear companions, her second family…
...and most importantly, her best friend. Her best friend who had become so much more through the years.
Which explained why Star found herself filled with anxiety in a strange new place that was somehow still on Earth. She still had trouble wrapping her head around what ‘countries’ were, exactly.
“For the last time, Uncle Enrique, Selena’s been dead for over thirty years! Do you still need that shrine?!” Marco hollered as he hopped out the front door to come back and retrieve the last few pieces of their luggage.
He sighed, shaking his head and hoisted Star’s obnoxiously pink bag over his shoulder, noticing her anxiety-ridden expression.
“Hey,” he said softly. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah!” Star blurted out. “Just… I didn’t expect there to be so many Diazes. A-and I don’t know anything about them or this place— what is it called again? 'Mexico'?”
Marco gave a tiny smile, taking Star’s hand and kissing her knuckles. “Yes, this is Mexico. And they’re my family, Star, relax,” he assured. “They’ll love you,” He paused, hearing the crashing of some dinner plates and rapid Spanish coming from the upper floor of his grandmother’s humble abode. “Besides, they won’t have a choice. You’re a Diaz too now.”
Star flushed at the sudden recollection, and she nodded, intertwining her fingers with Marco’s, their matching gold rings glimmering in the blistering sunlight.
“Yeah,” she whispered softly, standing on her tiptoes to press her forehead against Marco’s. “Guess I am.”
Earth was a pretty great place indeed. Because as long as it had Marco, that was all that mattered.